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https://electrek.co/2023/11/22/this-330kw-generator-uses-a-giant-kite-to-charge-itself/>
"If you had to read that headline twice, let me assure you: I had to read
Kitepower’s website a few times myself. The concept of harnessing the wind for
power is positively ancient, but it usually comes in the form of a fixed
wind-catching surface rotating a driven mass (aka a windmill). Kitepower is
doing something very different. The best way to describe it is probably a “wind
winch.”
The Kitepower Hawk — which is now available to order — combines a few key
elements. The first is a 400kWh battery pack inside a shipping container, which
comprises the storage and distribution portion of the system. That battery
array can pump out up to 330kW of power at peak and is designed to run for
around 10 hours under typical operating conditions. The second and third major
elements are a reel system (think of it as a winch), which releases and
retracts a tether and the aforementioned kite.
The kite is attached to the end of the tether, and as the wind pulls the kite
into the air (in an elaborate flight pattern designed to maximize the duration
of the “pull” cycle), that pulling force unwinds the reel. The resultant
mechanical force, very much like the spinning of a wind turbine, is then
harvested as electricity. Finally, the system then uses electricity to pull the
kite back in, but in a straight-line trajectory that uses far less power than
the pulling force generates.
The key figures claimed here are that the Hawk, at maximum efficiency,
generates 40kW of electricity when in the unwind cycle. When the kite is being
wound back in, it consumes 10kW of electricity. The system spends roughly 80%
of its time in the unwind cycle and just 20% reeling the kite back in, and
Kitepower claims the system, therefore, produces the net equivalent of 30kW of
continuous power when in operation."
Via Kenny Chaffin.
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
